AVA Hosted version 2.0.0

On June 15, 2013 Avangard Solutions released the all new AVA Hosted version 2.0.0.

 

The new release has the following functionalities:

 

Backend

 

  • Core Engine – refactored from scratch the core backend authentication, authorization, accounting and routing cores to increase system performance, scalability and availability.
  • Provisioning – introduced incremental real time provisioning of objects into the in-memory backend store.

 

 

Admin

 

  • Account Member – members are system entities which use service features such as calling, numbers, voicemail, subscriptions, etc. Members represent sets of features, access and routing rules which define how end users associated with the account can use the provided services. There is always at least one member called Default Member which inherits all current account features.
  • Trigger Charges – these are charges triggered by the assignment of objects such as lines, members, numbers, toll free numbers, subscriptions (usage counters), voicemail, etc.
  • Lines – optimization of the old Maximum Concurrent Calls functionality. Lines define how many calls one object will be allowed to have simultaneously – there are account lines, member lines, endpoint lines, etc.
  • Account Features – this functionality allows for management of all account features in one place (numbers, lines, endpoints, PINs, speed dials, voicemail boxes, caller ID, call forwarding rules, etc.)
  • Call Forwarding – functionality to forward incoming calls to one or more registered devices or to one or more landline or mobile phones.
  • Automatic Taxable Accounts – this functionality allows the creation of automatically taxable accounts from IVRs
  • IVR behavior based on Access Numbers – this feature allows different IVR behavior depending on the Access Numbers (DIDs) used.
  • Alert for Required Provisioning – this functionality assists users by showing a notice when provisioning is needed.
  • Tags – this feature allows users to input keywords for grouping and searching of numbers and members. There are member and number tags in the system.
  • IVR Servers – this functionality allows adding of IVR servers (Asterisk) from the Admin portal of the system.
  • Member Reports – optimization of the old Account Reports, there is now an option to display reports per individual member.
  • Blocking of Negative Margin Calls – this feature allows users to block calls if the cost is higher than the revenue.
  • Number Set – this functionality is used to manage numbers. Number Sets are associated with Subscription Plans – accounts can only purchase numbers from number sets associated with the plan the account is subscribed to.
  • Numbers – these are origination DIDs which are associated with accounts and can be forwarded to endpoints or external numbers. Numbers are managed within number sets.
  • Toll Free Numbers – functionality which allows managing and billing of Toll Free numbers.
  • Generation of Fake number in Number set – used for assigning fake numbers for authentication of on-net calls.
  • Number Settings – these are the settings to be inherited from the numbers functionality. Settings include release and reserved period, ring duration when call hunting, system translation set, force disconnect cause, route media, etc.
  • Inbound and Outbound ON-Net Billing – functionality allows granular rating, billing and reporting for incoming and outgoing calls between accounts in th system.
  • TollFree Billing – the feature allows granular rating billing and reporting of incoming TollFree calls based on ANI. The functionality also enables reporting of per minute TollFree carrier costs.
  • Voicemail Servers – this feature allows users to add one or more voice mail servers to the system.  Voicemail servers then can be associated with subscription plans – this way calls to voicemail from members of accounts in the plan will be sent to the selected voicemail server. Voicemail servers can be assigned in many subscription plans but a subscription plan can only have one voicemail server assigned.
  • Selective Media Routing – the functionality allows granular configuration of media routing per endpoint
  • Origination carriers – the system now allows management of origination carriers (e.g. billing and calculation of origination cost to DID provider).

 

 

CRM

 

  • Signup Core – this is the core signup functionality module, it is required by all modules that allow signup.
  • Payments Core – this is the core payments functionality module, it is required by all modules that allow payments.
  • Subscriptions Core – this is the core subscription functionality module, it is required by all modules that allow subscription.
  • Voicemail Core – this is the core voicemail functionality module, it is required by all modules that allow voicemail.
  • Single-step Signup – enhancement of functionality to allow customers to purchase numbers, lines, subscriptions, Toll Free numbers, etc.
  • Multi-step Signup – enhancement of functionality to allow customers to purchase numbers, lines, subscriptions, Toll Free numbers, etc.
  • Night/Weekend Routing – allows users to change the route set of the accounts on to night and weekend schedule.
  • Landing Page – new module that allows users to create multiple landing pages.
  • Residential Subscriptions – new module for the residential business case that allows customers to purchase and cancel subscriptions through the CRM.
  • Enterprise Subscriptions – new module for the enterprise business case that allows users to purchase, cancel, or assign subscriptions through the CRM.
  • Residential Voicemail –  new module for management of residential voicemail boxes, it enables residential users to have a single voicemail box on the system
  • Enterprise Voicemail – new module for management of enterprise voicemail boxes, it enables enterprise users to create multiple voicemail boxes and call forwarding rules.
  • Residential Numbers – new module that allows residential users to select and purchase residential numbers, cancel numbers, configure number forwarding to phones or endpoints, etc.
  • Enterprise Numbers – new module that allows enterprises to manage numbers, purchase numbers by location and pattern, cancel numbers, manage call forwarding, etc.
  • Devices Basic – allows retail users to manage endpoints and configure digest authentication (replaces the previous Retail Endpoints Module).
  • Devices Advanced – allows advanced management of account devices for wholesale and enterprise environments (replaces the previous Wholesale Endpoints Module).
  • Lines – new module that allows enterprises to purchase or cancel lines in the system. Not relevant for the residential business case.
  • Members – new module that allows enterprises to manage members in the system. Not relevant for the residential business case.

 

 

Miscellaneous

 

  • Subscription Plans – enhancement of existing functionality to allow the management of call billing, call routing, members, lines, voicemail servers, number sets, IVRs, etc.
  • Usage Counters – enhancement of existing functionality to allow carry-over of unused volume/occurrences.
  • Surcharges – enhancement of existing functionality to allow surcharges to be applied to usage charges and access numbers.
  • Destinations – enhancement of existing functionality
  • CLI Script – enhancement of existing functionality to allow for better management of Yate processes.
  • Taxes – optimization of existing functionality to allow taxes to be associated to access numbers and surcharges as well
  • Callback application – refactoring of existing functionality
  • Calling Cards application – refactoring of existing functionality
  • Call Control process – introducing a new functionality for reset calls allowing the limiting and billing of incidental hung calls
  • Update Balance process – attend to the real time update of the account balances
  • Current Calls Report – enhancement of existing functionality to allow support of the new features
  • Calls Distribution – enhancement of existing functionality to allow support of the new features
  • CDR Lookup – enhancement of existing functionality to allow support of the new features plus new details added (e.g. routes through which the call was terminated)
  • Invoices – modification and optimization of invoice generator and invoice PDF creator
  • Reports – introduced reporting for on-net and toll free calling, per destination reporting, per account category reporting, enhanced many current reports

 

AVA Hosted version 1.5.12

On August 22, 2011 Avangard Services, Inc. announced the release of AVA Hosted 1.5.12 with the following functionalities:

 

New Features

  • Destinations – new functionality which consolidates all destinations in the system by prefix to allow coherent representation of data and workflow
  • Destination Groups– new functionality which allows improved tariff management experience: create destination groups to easily filter existing or generate surrogate destinations; link tariffs; and apply markup on carrier rates to generate billing rates etc.
  • Proration of custom charges – enhanced the custom charges functionality to allow proration; granular recurrence management; improvements to itemization of custom charges per account
  • Customizable Invoice Layout – allows granular customizations of what sections of the invoice to be printed in the PDF invoices
  • Reverse of un-invoiced transactions – allows correction of un-invoiced transactions in the current billing period
  • Account Locking – functionality to lock accounts based on prorated balance; locked accounts continue to be billed but cannot use the service; accounts can be manually locked and unlocked
  • Account Beginning Balance – ability to specify opening balance for new accounts
  • Block routes –  functionality to allow blocking of specific destinations within route sets
  • Invoice on account deactivation – functionality to generate closing invoice on account deactivation
  • Residual Balance Report – revenue assurance report to show all inactive accounts outstanding balances
  • System Jobs Report – the report allows administrators to monitor and control execution of automated jobs and manual CLI utilities; jobs can be started and stop from the UI
  • CDRs, Reports and downloaded files to be based on disconnect time
  • CDR Lookup jobs – functionality to generate large CDR lookup requests in the background
  • Limit Buy Credit by day – CRM portal module to limit the total top up amount per day per account
  • Automatic Recharge of balance after invoice generation in CRM portal
  • Username Retrieval – CRM portal module for end users to retrieve their username by email

 

Enhancements

  • System Log Report – optimized performance, added more useful information about process execution
  • Activity Log Report – enhanced report performance and added new information such as user IP etc.
  • Account invoices performance optimizations and display improvements
  • CDR Lookup Report – improvements to View Details, added Account ID and Carrier ID, Session Duration
  • Account Call History Report – enhancements and display optimization
  • Routing – improved the functionality to better handle large data sets
  • View rates – improved the functionality to better handle large data sets
  • Custom charges – functionality to allow setting manual effective dates
  • Invoices – added fields for VAT Number and PayPal payment details
  • Multiple UI enhancements – e.g. progress indicator in data grids; double click functionality, etc.
  • Yate Cluster – functionality to use multiple Yate MySQL CDR servers and monitor in real time reports; functionality to use OpenSIPs as dispatcher and load balancer of YATE cluster for large production environments

 

 

AVA Hosted version 1.5.11

On November 22, 2010 Avangard Services released AVA Hosted 1.5.11 with the following new features and functionalities:


Multi Currency Functionality

•    Enhancement  to multi-currency functionality
•    System is configured in Base Currency
•    Created FX Rates management functionality for manual/automatic online update
•    Subscription Plans can be set for specific currency
•    All usage and custom charges support respective Plan currency
•    PIN batches can be set for specific currency
•    Accounts have currency
•    Account Reports can be viewed in account or system base currency
•    Payments can be done in account or base currency
•    Currency support in CRM portal

CRM portal
•    Enhancement to CRM portal functionality
•    Restructured CRM modules to remove redundancy and enhance scalability
•    Web Services Authentication – re-factored module to serve as core module for other functionalities and global settings
•    Account – enhanced functionalities including customized account profile fields etc.
•    Multi-step Signup – enhanced subscription module wizard based subscriptions
•    Single-step Signup – enhanced single page subscription module
•    Multi-site – allows multiple CRM sites to be hosted on a single system
•    Multi-language – support of multiple languages
•    Retail Endpoints – basic management of VoIP endpoints from CRM portal
•    Wholesale Endpoints – enhanced management of VoIP endpoints via CRM portal
•    Payments Core – a core abstraction layer for payment integration; allows multiple payment processors to be easily integrated
•    On-Net – enable automatic on-net number distribution on signup
•    Promo – Promo codes for credit of account balance
•    Referral – enables end user signup referral program
•    Rewards – enables rewards points functionality for spent money
•    Authorize.net – integration of Authorize.net payment processor including CIM API for external credit card storage
•    IVR – enhanced the configurability and functionality of IVR scripts
•    Web Callback – enhanced the functionalities of the module
•    Automatic registration of Caller ID for pin less dialing
•    Enable SSL certificates with hosted CRM sites
•    Support of multipart MIME emails (html)
•    Support for multiple currencies
•    Subscription Module security image – CAPTCHA

SOAP API
•    Callback rate finder to return correct destination name
•    Use private network for SOAP communications
•    SOAP API method to return account by PIN

Yate Integration
•    Enhancement to YATE integration functionality
•    Upgrade to latest version of YATE
•    Applied latest YATE bug fixes

AVAHosted version 1.5.10

On February 15, 2010 Avangard Services released AVAHosted 1.5.10 with the following new features and functionalities:

Multi-language Functionality

  • new multi-language functionality based on customizable gettext templates
  • invoices, agent statements, notifications, CRM portal are now available in Spanish and Portuguese languages
  • the functionality allows custom language translations

Multi-currency Functionality

  • new multi-currency functionality
  • option to choose default system currency – one time at initial system setup
  • option to chose currency and display formats based on international standards

CRM portal

  • enhancements to CRM portal functionality
  • create web service for PINS, Numbers and Prompt languages
  • developed new Drupal modules:

o Auto Recharge – allows automatic credit card recharge

o Caller IDs – allows users to manage custom caller id-s

o Notifications – subscription based scheduled notifications

o Rate Plans View – CRM rate plans display

o Redirect – allows custom login/logout pages

o Reports – allows selection of reports columns

o Signup – enhancement to Signup functionality

o Speed Dials – allows speed dials management

o Splash Page – allows customization of account information page

o Subscription – alternative of Signup wizard

o Transfer Funds – allows transfer of funds between accounts

o Callback – web callback functionality

o Topup – added credit card store and manage functionality

o Account – allow management of account profile data

o Password – allows to request a forgotten password

o Credit card management – allows credit card management

o Rates Map – displays interactive map with rates

o Support – provides support form for client feedback

Web Callback

  • developed web callback functionality as Drupal module
  • enhanced web call back with callback rate calculator
  • enhanced web callback with scheduled callback jobs

Notifications

  • enhancement to notifications functionality
  • added check boxes in accounts to choose which notifications to be sent
  • multilanguage notifications templates
  • CRM scheduled notifications module

YATE Integration

  • enhancement to YATE integration functionality
  • billing of YATE hung calls
  • developed CLI interface to YATE connector
  • upgrade to latest version of YATE
  • applied latest YATE bug fixes

AVAHosted version 1.5.9

On December 4, 2009 Avangard Services announced the release of  AVAHosted 1.5.9 with the following new features and functionalities:

 

CRM portal

  • added a highly customizable Drupal based CRM portal
  • subscription module
  • accounts module
  • reports module
  • top-up module
  • multi-language support (English, Spanish, etc.)

On-net calling

  • added on-net calling functionality
  • the functionality allows calls between registered account endpoints
  • originating party is billed by on-net tariff
  • CDR is recorded in originating account

Reporting

  • enhancement to reporting functionality
  • enhancements of Receivables Aging report
  • enhancements of CDR lookup report (PIN search, maximum number of rows, etc.)
  • added new PIN reports (Activated PINs, Expired PINs)
  • added option to show account call history cdr details

Agents

  • enhancement to agents functionality
  • restructured agents commissions functionality
  • refactored and enhanced agent statements functionality

Calling Cards

  • enhancement to calling card functionality
  • added possibility to search by PIN in CDRs
  • added activated PINs and expired PINs reports
  • added fake minutes announcement to prepaid cards scripts
  • enhanced prepaid cards scripts with dynamic number translations

Routing

  • enhancement to routing functionality
  • functionality for auto recovery on lost DB connection in yate
  • optimized and tuned yate templates and processes
  • functionality to stop current calls on insuficient balance
  • optimized yate not to record CDRs for unauthenticated calls
  • forced account endpoint media routing for endpoints behind NAT
  • enhanced yate call hunting functionality
  • enhanced yate logging functionality
  • patched yate h323 channel to support G729 40ms packetization

Invoicing

  • refactoring and enhancements of invoce functionality
  • enhanced automatic emails

Subscription Plans

  • refactoring and enhancements of subscription plan functionality
  • added option to delete subscription plans
  • force change of account subscription plan functionality
  • added default route inherited by accounts when associated with subscription plan.

AVAHosted version 1.5.8

On September 1, 2009 Avangard Services announced the release of  AVAHosted 1.5.8 with the following new features and functionalities:

 

Features:

  • Enhancement to Calling Cards functionality
  • New Onnet calling functionality
  • Enhancements to Reporting functionality

 

AVAHosted version 1.5.7

On August 14, 2009 Avangard Services announced the release of  AVAHosted 1.5.7 with the following new features and functionalities:

 

Features and Enhancements

  • improved yate routing performance
  • improved yate error handling and logging
  • refactored yate routing, cdr and sip registration handling
  • ehanced CDR handling: introduced CDR queueing mechanism
  • added yate real time authorization cache
  • integrated in memory realtime yate database
  • moved real time CDR streaming database locally to yate

AVAHosted version 1.5.6

On July 8, 2009 Avangard Services announced the release of  AVAHosted 1.5.6 with the following new features and functionalities:

 

Features And Enhancements

  • tuned and optimized PostgreSQL configuration parameters
  • refactored Calling Cards and Callback applications to route via yate
  • added default route to subscription plans

AVAHosted version 1.5.5

On June 14, 2009 Avangard Services announced the release of  AVAHosted 1.5.5 with the following new features and functionalities:

 

Features And Enhancements

  • SIP digest registration with providers
  • define SIP endpoints as IP or URL
  • remove prepared statements from yate DB interface
  • enhance AVAVoIP version tracking

 

AVAHosted version 1.5.4

On May 24, 2009 Avangard Services announced the release of  AVAHosted 1.5.4 with the following new features and functionalities:

 

Features And Enhancements

  • optimized cost calculation
  • optimized reporting – download csv files, CDR lookup report
  • UI enhancements – log in on last place where were you before
  • optimized DB connections pooling from web
  • enhanced asterisk connection – prepaid application, callback application
  • enhanced yate connection – failover optimized yate route handling
  • optimized routing – carrier id column added in routing – carriers, change caller id phrase to be number